I’ve never really understood the bad rap summer has with gamers. Okay, sure, not a lot of games are released during the summer months, but in my opinion it’s the best time to actually play games. You have more free time, and come on, it’s not like you’re going to spend most of it outside. There’re bugs and heat and annoying people who might try to foist a game of Frisbee on you out there!

In fact, I think there are certain kinds of games that should ideally only be played during the summer months whist covered in a glistening layer of sweat. Such as…

A Good Meaty RPG

Being a major RPG fan I’ve of course played them during all seasons, but the ones that have really stuck with me are the ones I’ve played in marathon sessions over the summer. No other season is better for sitting down for a full afternoon of delicious grindy catatonia.

Need some suggestions? A new, sadistic-as-usual Atlus dungeon hack, Shin Megami Tensei IV hits this week, or you could grab the super beautiful Studi Ghibli RPG Ni No Kuni, which came out earlier this year. The latest Fire Emblem is pretty goddamn great as well.

A Game You’re Afraid Might Be Bad

Summer’s a time to let your hair down, take some chances and have some fun. Summer doesn’t judge man! Now’s the time to buy that game that got dumped on by reviewers, but you think looks totally fun anyways. It’s understandable if you don’t want to take a chance on something potentially bad during the holiday triple-A crush, but what do you have to lose during the summer? Currently I’m playing a lot of Game & Wario (Metacritic of 61) and having a perfectly cromulent time.

Find out if Remember Me is really as pretentious as people say. Grab that $5 copy of Resident Evil 6 and see what all the hoopla was about. Man up and play some crap!

I finally finished Witcher 2 today after having to restart the entire thing after logging 30 hours due to a computer crash which required me to repartition my HD (put in a weekend marathon to get back to where i was). Other then that its all about my backlog and whatever Steam games are on sale.

Every summer I replay the Suikoden series, I start with the PSN version I got off the first one due to it being a little polished up, followed up by putting in Suikoden 2 and loading up the save file from the first. I next plug in my PS2 to play 3, 4, Tactics, and finally 5. Loading the previous games content gives you that main character as well as some characters with some pumped up stats. After completing I cry due to the franchise never going to find an end.

Hey Nate, have you ever played King of Dragons on SNES? Or simply enjoy side scrolling games where you level up and are just a bad ass? I am getting Dragon Crown with a friend of mine and am trying to create a full party of 4 to take on the mighty journey. And if you pre-order… ART BOOK!!! ;x

This summer I am righting and incredible wrong and finally plunging into Mass Effect. There was a lull when I wasn’t playing much (actually, the opposite of a lull) and somehow missed out.
Oh Shepard, you have some decisions to make…

Definitely going to finish some DLC that I missed (looking at you Dark Arisen) and catch up on some pc games that I’ve been missing out on (Hotline Miami, Fez, Witcher 2) and Steam is assisting with that tremendously. Shadowrun Returns drops soon and I know that’s gonna keep me very busy.
I also have a small backlog of PS3 games now thanks to PS-Plus, I’m gonna throw XCOM another run through, still gotta finish Deus Ex and Spec Ops The Line as well. But fuck those Riddler trophies, seriously.

I picked up on Dark Souls a little late, and quit (gave up) when Skyrim came out. Only now did I buy a new copy, win the game in less than a week, love the everfucking shit out of it, keep playing and beat NG+, create a new character, beat the game twice with him…all in the span of a couple weeks. The game has become such a black hole of time sink that I’ve woken up and thought “oh shit, I forgot to do X!” then got out of bed at 6AM (because I played the game till 4) just to do it. Yeah, being a teacher rocks over the summer.